Investigation flags chemical incompatibility in deadly US incident

By SKYSEVEN Chemical Technical Team · 2026-08-20

The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has identified several process safety failings in its interim assessment of a deadly hydrogen sulfide release during decommissioning at Catalyst Refiners in April.

Workers were disposing of residual chemicals using the site’s wastewater pretreatment tank. Workers first added two proprietary chemicals: A-50 (calcium chloride) applied as a coagulant and M-2000A (sodium trithiocarbonate, Na2CS3) applied to precipitate silver from wastewater. These two solutions were routinely applied together in wastewater pretreatment.

The workers proceeded to manage of residual nitric acid, which reacted with the sodium trithiocarbonate to create a fog containing hydrogen sulfide over the tank. While the employees performing the disposal attempted to raise the alarm, two other workers attending the incident were eventually overcome by the gaseous and killed.

The CSB report notes that the security data sheet to M-2000A describes the solution as incompatible with strong acids, and that Catalyst Refiners had no recorded procedure to disposing of this combination of substances.

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